Adolfo Hohenstein was born in Saint Petersburg, the capital of Russian Empire, to German parents, Julius and Laura Irack. His father was a forest engineer, whose career prompted him to travel extensively. Adolfo moved to Vienna where he grew up and completed his studies. His travels took him to India, where he decorated the houses of the local nobility.
The Italian experience
In 1879, he settled down in Milan, Italy. He became a set and costume designer for La Scala and other theatres. There he met the musical publisher Giulio Ricordi, and in 1889 began to work for the Ricordi Graphical Workshops, where he shortly became the artistic director in charge of the graphical part. He created the posters for La Bohème and Tosca, as well as publicity for Campari, Buitoni and Corriere della Sera, numerous postcards, covers for scores and booklets. His work continued to cover the theatrical dimension: scenarios and wardrobes for several works, among them Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff (1893) and a major part of the works of Giacomo Puccini, from the sketches of Le Villi (1884) to posters of Madama Butterfly (1904). At Ricordi's he had as colleague Giovanni Mario Mataloni and as students Leopoldo Metlicovitz and Marcello Dudovich.
Return to Germany
In the first years of the 1900s, after marrying Katharina Plaskuda, a widow, he traveled more and more frequently between Italy and Germany till 1906, when, after winning the competition for the graphical symbol and the poster for the "Esposizione per il Traforo del Sempione", he left Milan for Bonn and Düsseldorf definitively. He settled in Bonn in 1918. The German years saw him engaged mostly as a painter and involved in the decoration of numerous buildings, among them one of the first in constructed reinforced concrete in Renania (1911). He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
^Große Berliner Kunstausstellung 1917 im Kunstpalast zu Düsseldorf (in German). Berlin: Verlag der Otto Elsner Akt.-Ges. 1917. Catalogue no. 968. Digital copy of Heidelberg University Library
Bibliography
Dizionario Enciclopedico Bolaffi dei Pittori e degli Incisori Italiani – dall'XI al XX secolo (volume VI). Giulio Bolaffi Editore, Torino, 1974.
Un secolo di manifesti. Canova-Alberto Maioli Editore, Milano, 1996. ISBN88-87843-10-4.